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From wire reports • Friday January 25, 2013 1:19 AM

SAN FRANCISCO — A little more than 10 percent of women in the military said in 2008 that they
had an unintended pregnancy in the previous year — a figure significantly higher than rates in the
general public, according to a U.S. study.

The findings appear in the current issue of the journal
Obstetrics & Gynecology.

Consensual sex among members of the same rank is legal, but women may be afraid to ask for
condoms, for fear people will think they are violating policy, said Vinita Goyal, who has studied
unintended pregnancy in female veterans at Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University in
Providence, R.I. She was not involved in the study.

Sexual assault might be another contributor, the researchers noted.

“There are studies showing anywhere between 20 and 40 percent of servicewomen (experience)
rape or attempted rape during their military career, and the vast majority don’t report it,” said
Daniel Grossman from the University of California, San Francisco, who worked on the study.